Post: #1

I was forwarded this from a friend today. I've never been a teacher and speak basically no Portuguese. I don't know what cities they'd be placing students, could be some town in the middle of nowhere for all I know. But I'm giving it some serious thought. Anybody in here taught English abroad or know someone that has? I don't know if teachers work regular 40 hour weeks or 60hr weeks or 10 hour weeks or what. What do you think? Might be a great way to stay for a bit and still get some cash to cover living expenses.

Quote:To all Comadres interested in going to South America:
AIDE is getting ready to launch a Teach English in Brazil program in conjunction with the Brazilian Ministry.

There are only 30 positions available across all of Brazil and they would be great for new grads, teachers looking to experience time abroad (semester, year, extended stay) or those looking for an international change of pace. No Portuguese skills required.

- Salary between R$1,500 - $3,000 Brazilian reais (approximately USD$850 - 1700) per month.
- 4-weeks paid vacation for 12 month contracts
- Must enroll by June 10th for Fall semester teaching.
- Brazilian medical insurance and assistance
- Financial assistance with daily transportation from and to school
- Pay bonus in December equaling 1.3 months' pay

The cost for teachers is $1895 (insurance coverage, training, orientation materials, etc) plus airfare one way.

Post: #2

That sounds like an interesting deal. But make sure you obtain more info about the terms of the contract such as hours required to work, that is how many hours are required to be teaching hours and how many hours you'd be required to spend at the school. Are they providing housing or helping with the cost of the rent? Get as much info from them as possible in writing before committing to anything. Another big factor is where they'd be sending you. If it's in small city, it could a whole lot of fun as it's cheap in the interior smaller cities. But if this were in SP, that'd be tough as SP is as expensive as NYC if not more plus getting around in SP is hell, specially during rush hour.

Cheers.

Post: #3

Sounds like a good deal, unless you have something more lucritive back home. Even if you taught in some bum fuck town in the interior, it's probably something you'd learn a lot from and you'd be able to save those reais and blow it during the 4 weeks you get to travel to more populated and expensive areas. Also, ask if they give you a housing stipend along with your salary. but the orientation fee sounds a bit expensive, considering that they don't completely pay for your airfare.

Post: #4

To be honest, you could probably make more than $850 USD per month doing some online grunt work job found via Craiglist or Elance.

Heck, I know a guy who taught himself Flash and clears well over 3-5K per month (sometimes up to 7-10K) with a steady stream of clients coming in every month via word of mouth. No technical background whatsoever but gets the job done without any slacking and has a nice sense of what looks classy and good.

Point is -- it's a shame not to utilize the power of the Internet these days to geoarbitrage.

Post: #5

(05-11-2010 11:14 PM)kindredspirit Wrote:  To be honest, you could probably make more than $850 USD per month doing some online grunt work job found via Craiglist or Elance.

Heck, I know a guy who taught himself Flash and clears well over 3-5K per month (sometimes up to 7-10K) with a steady stream of clients coming in every month via word of mouth. No technical background whatsoever but gets the job done without any slacking and has a nice sense of what looks classy and good.

Point is -- it's a shame not to utilize the power of the Internet these days to geoarbitrage.

I do flash/web work as well. I've had some good paying clients, but it's kind of feast of famine. Too many damn low-ballers to compete with.

Post: #6

(05-11-2010 11:20 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  

(05-11-2010 11:14 PM)kindredspirit Wrote:  To be honest, you could probably make more than $850 USD per month doing some online grunt work job found via Craiglist or Elance.

Heck, I know a guy who taught himself Flash and clears well over 3-5K per month (sometimes up to 7-10K) with a steady stream of clients coming in every month via word of mouth. No technical background whatsoever but gets the job done without any slacking and has a nice sense of what looks classy and good.

Point is -- it's a shame not to utilize the power of the Internet these days to geoarbitrage.

I do flash/web work as well. I've had some good paying clients, but it's kind of feast of famine. Too many damn low-ballers to compete with.

Think he started off charging about $1000 per site for photographers, artists, etc and it just kind of mushroomed from there with no marketing from his side whatsoever.

Post: #7

(05-11-2010 11:14 PM)kindredspirit Wrote:  Point is -- it's a shame not to utilize the power of the Internet these days to geoarbitrage.

Good point and I agree with you. However, while in Brasil, I'm sure this would provide with enough free time to maintain an e-biz and make decent to nice profit online. The main advantage of this offer, at least IMHO would be to stay in Brasil for 1 year LEGALLY (which is not that easy), make some good solid contacts and of course have a ball. If the guy is any ambitious, he could very easily double his salary by doing privates on his free time. And with the ever increasing Real, it could be a good gig to do for a year in an awesome place (as long as you don't end up in SP or in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere).

Post: #8

(05-11-2010 11:39 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  (as long as you don't end up in SP or in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere).

I just sent an email asking which cities do they send students to teach. I have to think it's most likely going to be larger cities. I mean why would they need English teachers in some small town where nobody needs it? I think it's more likely going to be for business people and educated people who need it, which I would guess is going to be in bigger cities. We'll see what she says.

Post: #9

Yeah -- good to have the steady cash coming in that frees up time for other side projects. I whole-heartedly agree.

Post: #10

I would offer a warning about these kind of web job interviews. China has millions of them, and 60% of the time they are scams. Once you give the company the cash, poof, they vanish, or they give you a ticket, but fail to get you a working visa or one of a million other ways to get screwed over. The ONLY way to teach internationally is to go to the country and physically show up at schools, with a translator if necessary, or find a respectable agent inside the country and go from there. Online adds are the easiest way to fuck yourself over.

Post: #11

(05-12-2010 06:21 PM)AlphaQup2nite Wrote:  I would offer a warning about these kind of web job interviews. China has millions of them, and 60% of the time they are scams. Once you give the company the cash, poof, they vanish, or they give you a ticket, but fail to get you a working visa or one of a million other ways to get screwed over. The ONLY way to teach internationally is to go to the country and physically show up at schools, with a translator if necessary, or find a respectable agent inside the country and go from there. Online adds are the easiest way to fuck yourself over.

Thx for the advice.

Post: #12

I've done a lot of research on this topic. I've heard that teaching esl in Brazil is very low paying, most often to the extent that it barely covers, or doesn't cover, expenses. A lot of this was anecdotal info directly from people who have done it. If someone has a differing perspective, I'd like to hear about it.

Post: #13

1500 reals a month is nothing

Post: #14

1500 a month can be your rent in SP. Here, to keep yourself in regular conditions you need at least 2500 and it is hard to get this teaching english. I have a friend who had teached English since she was 18 and can't get this.

Post: #15

Your best bet is probably to try and find a job where you can work anywhere with a company based in the US.

Post: #16

The warnings given by folks on this thread are fair and one has to take them into consideration when dealing with an online agency. However, to me, this Aide agency seems legit. Roosh and Chocolatinha are right that 1500R a month is peanuts in a town like Rio or SP. In those towns, anything less than 3K is not worth it. Of course, as mentioned before, if you're ambitious and have good social skills, you could easily double that with privates on the side.

I emailed the folks at Aide last night about whether I'd have a say in where I'd want to be placed, they replied saying that I can mention my preference on the application and they'd take that into consideration. Sounds good to me. I would just avoid SP and maybe Salvador and select say a smaller or even second tier city like Belo Horizonte, Goiania, Campinas, Riberao Preto, Joao Pessoa, Uberlandia, Maceio, Sao Luis or even Cuiaba. Rio would be fun but way too many distractions and quite expensive. In these cities, I'd say the pay would be around the 1.5K to 2K/month, enough to get by if you don't get too crazy and wild and maybe double that on the side with privates.

Speakeasy, are you going to do that and apply for it? I've got to admit that for a second, I did flirt with that idea but after reflection, I'd much rather spend the next few months working on my biz and then hitting Brasil on my own terms in the fall.

Anyways, if anyone is going to do this thing, keep us updated on how it goes and all the best!

Cheers.

Post: #17

Thanks VP. Here are the area's I would be looking at:

Quote:We have schools located in the following states: State of Minas Gerais, State of São Paulo, State of Paraná, State of Rio Grande do Sul, State of Santa Catarina, State of Paraíba, State of Bahia, State of Olinda, State of Ceará, Distrito Federal.

They don't give specific cities. So you're kind of playing roulette as to where you'd end up. I'm giving it heavy thought. One big advantage about going there as a teacher is that you should make friends quick and instantly have a social network both with other ESL teachers and the Brazilians you're teaching. So you might not have the loneliness that I would come with being in a new place and having no job or social connections.

Post: #18

I just read about this opportunity on the website (http://www.aideabroad.org/teach/brazil.asp). It does indeed seem legit, and not a bad deal at all except for the $1895 up front. I can understand having to pay for your own flight and housing, but why would you have to pay someone in order to get a job? Are most teach abroad gigs like that? Seems weird to me.

Post: #19

(05-14-2010 01:03 AM)lilseezie Wrote:  I just read about this opportunity on the website (http://www.aideabroad.org/teach/brazil.asp). It does indeed seem legit, and not a bad deal at all except for the $1895 up front. I can understand having to pay for your own flight and housing, but why would you have to pay someone in order to get a job? Are most teach abroad gigs like that? Seems weird to me.

I'm wary of that upfront cash thing too. I'm looking around to see if there are other schools with similar ads without having to front so much.

Post: #20

The only reason I'd think might make it t worth to shell 1895 is for the 1 year work visa in Brasil. Which is next to impossible to obtain on your own or find a Brasilian company to sponsor you for that due to the costs and insane red tape. And if during your contract, you're good and make good contacts there, you can find a better paying job and have that company sponsor you and provide you with a work visa in Brasil.

Another key thing you may want to ask them about Speakeasy is how many hours they'll be expecting you to teach and how many hours they'll expect you to in the school even when you're not teaching.

Post: #21

(05-13-2010 08:34 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  The warnings given by folks on this thread are fair and one has to take them into consideration when dealing with an online agency. However, to me, this Aide agency seems legit. Roosh and Chocolatinha are right that 1500R a month is peanuts in a town like Rio or SP. In those towns, anything less than 3K is not worth it. Of course, as mentioned before, if you're ambitious and have good social skills, you could easily double that with privates on the side.

I emailed the folks at Aide last night about whether I'd have a say in where I'd want to be placed, they replied saying that I can mention my preference on the application and they'd take that into consideration. Sounds good to me. I would just avoid SP and maybe Salvador and select say a smaller or even second tier city like Belo Horizonte, Goiania, Campinas, Riberao Preto, Joao Pessoa, Uberlandia, Maceio, Sao Luis or even Cuiaba. Rio would be fun but way too many distractions and quite expensive. In these cities, I'd say the pay would be around the 1.5K to 2K/month, enough to get by if you don't get too crazy and wild and maybe double that on the side with privates.

Speakeasy, are you going to do that and apply for it? I've got to admit that for a second, I did flirt with that idea but after reflection, I'd much rather spend the next few months working on my biz and then hitting Brasil on my own terms in the fall.

Anyways, if anyone is going to do this thing, keep us updated on how it goes and all the best!

Cheers.

Unless you get it in writing that you will get where you want, take it into consideration mean jack all. One of the reasons ESL teachers get shafted all the time is you dont know the legal system. I wont pretend to know Brazil's, but i dont think "take into consideration" will hold up if you get stuck in some back water town you hate. Also, once the money is gone, i dont think you will get you money back period.

Also, in china there are some cases where agents do all the negotiation and end up paying the teachers 33% less to 50% less then the school is offering, and pocketing the difference, or farming their teachers out to many different schools for a few days a week to make money. Honestly unless you can get several references from people who have used a company, i would be very wary of one in any case, doubly so if they are asking for cash up front. Your best bet is also goto schools directly. Also, classroom time differs between jobs greatly. Some schools want 30+ teaching hours a week, while others only want maybe 16. This could have a huge impact on taking a job or not. No matter what online agency you find, its a gamble. Here are a list of problems some people i know have had over agents.

Not providing proper visas, or ANY visa at all. (Had a friend who had to pay about 1200 just to be able to go home since the school held his passport but didnt get him a visa at all)
Screwed on location
Screwed on Pay
Unmentioned deductions such as first month's pay goes to the agent.
Returned airfare not provided at end of contract.
Craptastic apartments.
Insane hours (one guy i know almost 50 hours a week, but that was a private school)
Little to none living assistance with language barrier
Cerfews for provided apartments (this is a big one)
Just plain illegal schools subjected to police raids.
etc.
and these were all "free" agents inside of the country. The best bet is to go there or hook up with people who do ESL in the country you want to work in and get it from the horses mouth.

Post: #22

If anyone is interested in an English teaching job in Colombia here is an opportunity that a Facebook friend is promoting. It's a 5 month contract with AIESEC in Cartagena for US$792 per month. Contact [email protected]

Post: #23

(05-17-2010 01:43 AM)jmb Wrote:  If anyone is interested in an English teaching job in Colombia here is an opportunity that a Facebook friend is promoting. It's a 5 month contract with AIESEC in Cartagena for US$792 per month. Contact [email protected]

I'll email your friend with some questions. Is about $800 a month enough to live on in Colombia?

Post: #24

(05-17-2010 02:15 AM)speakeasy Wrote:  I'll email your friend with some questions. Is about $800 a month enough to live on in Colombia?

If you budget well enough it can sustain you. But you definitely won't be living a glamorous lifestyle. But you should email him because I have no idea how many hours per week you need to work or if any extras are included like free housing.

Post: #25

like a lot of people have mentioned on here tho, you can get VERY socially and politically connected by teaching english to well to do doctors, lawyers, politicians and their family. I knew a guy in Medellin who did just that, and he tripled his salary by work a few extra hours a week teaching on the side.